Energy boom to reach Tuscarawas County

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. is now involved in the proposed processing and fractionation plant on 200 acres off Blizzard Ridge Road, about 1 mile south of Newport, in Tuscarawas County.

Jon Baker

The likelihood that a natural gas processing facility will be built south of Uhrichsville is another sign that the energy boom that has already engulfed Carroll and Harrison counties is about to reach Tuscarawas County.

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. is now involved in the proposed processing and fractionation plant on 200 acres off Blizzard Ridge Road, about 1 mile south of Newport.

The plant was originally slated to be constructed by El Paso Corp. of Houston, but that company has been absorbed by Kinder Morgan. News of the facility was first reported in February 2012.

“It (Kinder Morgan) still plans to build that plant,” said Uhrichsville Mayor Terry Culbertson, who has spoken with company officials.

Kinder Morgan issued the following statement on the project: “Subject to obtaining producer commitments, Kinder Morgan intends to move forward with a project. Work is continuing on the engineering and commercial aspects of a project.

“No other information is available at this time.”

The company has information on its website concerning its Kinder Morgan Utica Project, which would include pipelines and what it dubs the Tuscarawas Processing and Fractionation Plant. The total project is estimated to cost between $575 million and $750 million.

The website says that necessary Environmental Protection Agency, land and water permits have been secured.

Erin Strouse of the Ohio EPA confirmed that Kinder Morgan is identified as the owner/operator of the “Tuscarawas Gas Processing Plant” in its air permits database.

Culbertson said he has been told that it would have between 25 and 30 permanent jobs, as well as creating hundreds of construction jobs while the plant is being built.

CATCHING THE WAVE

The full impact of the oil and gas boom has yet to be felt in Tuscarawas County, according to Mike Lauber, co-chair of the Tuscarawas Oil and Gas Alliance.

At a recent meeting of the Twin City Chamber of Commerce in Dennison, he told those in attendance that it is still early in the process of developing the Utica Shale play in eastern Ohio.

“If the Utica play is like a nine-inning baseball game, we have not completed the National Anthem of that game,” Lauber said.

What the local impact will be is unknown because energy companies have just begun exploring for natural gas. So far, 600 drilling permits have been issued for the Utica play, and 300 wells have been drilled, he said. But fewer than 100 wells are producing.

Still, Tuscarawas County is feeling the effects from the boom in neighboring Carroll and Harrison counties, because those counties don’t have the hotels and housing that Tuscarawas has.

Hotel receipts are running 25 percent ahead of a year ago, and restaurants are seeing more business, he said.

And Tuscarawas County is becoming a logistical hub for the Utica play.

“We already have seen more than 30 companies coming to Tuscarawas County in the last two years,” Lauber said. “We’ve seen about 15 years of growth in less than two years.”

As more wells are drilled in Tuscarawas County, that will bring more people and more investments to the area, he said. “That pebble in the pond creates a wave that slowly moves out.”

Experts believe the oil and gas boom will last for quite some time, he said, adding that it could take 20 years to develop the Utica Shale completely.

“It’s a very large play,” Lauber said.

So far, energy companies have drilled few dry holes. He said companies have had a 95 percent to 97 percent success rate in the Utica play.

He attributed that to the expertise the companies bring to this area. “They don’t set up and drill unless they know something’s there,” Lauber said.

The companies are attracted to this area because of the tremendous amount of underground water available. The hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, process takes several million gallons of water per well.

“Water is a huge resource we take for granted here,” Lauber said.

Eventually, fracking water will be reused, he added.

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or jon.baker@timesreporter.com
On Twitter: @jbakerTR